Robot hand, robot, and robot cell

Abstract

A robot hand has a hand base portion mounted on the distal end of the arm, a workpiece holding unit provided to the hand base portion, and a workpiece positioning unit for positioning the workpiece held by the workpiece holding unit in a predetermined position with respect to the workpiece holding unit. The workpiece holding unit has an sucking portion for sucking the surface of the workpiece so as to releasably hold the workpiece, and the sucking portion is elastically deformable in a direction parallel to the surface of the workpiece in the state that the workpiece is sucked. A robot hand having a function of positioning a workpiece in a predetermined position with respect to a workpiece holding unit can be provided.

1 . A robot hand mounted on a distal end of an arm of a robot so as to hold a workpiece, comprising:
 a hand base portion mounted on the distal end of the arm;   a workpiece holding unit provided to the hand base portion; and   a workpiece positioning unit for positioning the workpiece held by the workpiece holding unit in a predetermined position with respect to the workpiece holding unit,   wherein the workpiece holding unit has an sucking portion for sucking a surface of the workpiece so as to releasably hold the workpiece, and the sucking portion is elastically deformable in a direction parallel to the surface of the workpiece in a state that the workpiece is sucked.   
     
     
         2 . The robot hand according to  claim 1 , wherein the sucking portion is a vacuum sucking pad. 
     
     
         3 . The robot hand according to  claim 1 , wherein the workpiece positioning unit has a positioning abutting member for abutting on the workpiece so as to position the workpiece in the predetermined position. 
     
     
         4 . The robot hand according to  claim 3 , wherein the workpiece positioning unit has an inner/outer position switching unit for switching the positioning abutting member between a positioning position when positioning the workpiece in the predetermined position and an outer spread position more outward than the positioning position. 
     
     
         5 . The robot hand according to  claim 4 , wherein the inner/outer position switching unit switches the positioning abutting member among the outer spread position, the positioning position, and an inner retracted position more inward than the positioning position. 
     
     
         6 . The robot hand according to  claim 5 , wherein the inner retracted position is a position overlapping with the workpiece held by the workpiece holding unit in a view from an axial direction of the arm. 
     
     
         7 . The robot hand according to  claim 3 , wherein the workpiece positioning unit has a forward/backward position switching unit for switching the positioning abutting member between a forward projecting position projecting more forward than a workpiece holding surface of the workpiece holding unit and a backward retracted position retracted backward from the workpiece holding surface. 
     
     
         8 . The robot hand according to  claim 3 , wherein the positioning abutting member has a pair of positioning abutting pieces pinching the workpiece from both sides in the positioning position. 
     
     
         9 . The robot hand according to  claim 8 , wherein the positioning abutting member has two pairs of the positioning abutting pieces, and a pinching direction of the workpiece by one pair of positioning abutting pieces is orthogonal to a pinching direction of the workpiece by the other pair of positioning abutting pieces. 
     
     
         10 . The robot hand according to  claim 9 , wherein each width of one pair of the pair of positioning abutting pieces is larger than each width of the other pair of the pair of positioning abutting pieces. 
     
     
         11 . The robot hand according to  claim 3 , wherein a distal end of the positioning abutting member is projecting inward. 
     
     
         12 . The robot hand according to  claim 1 , wherein the robot is a grinding robot for abutting the workpiece held by the robot hand on a grinding surface of a grinding machine so as to carry out a grinding process. 
     
     
         13 . A robot comprising:
 the robot hand according to  claim 1 ; and   the arm on which the robot hand is mounted.   
     
     
         14 . A robot cell for processing a workpiece, comprising: the robot according to  claim 13 ; and
 a cell skeleton in which the robot is installed.